Chapter 2: An Embarrassing Secret / Denial

Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any other fandom I write for. That's the wonderful, magic of fan fiction.

Sorry for the really long wait on this as well as Finding New Purpose. Thank you everyone who reviewed, favorited, and/or alerted! I was really surprised at all the reviews this story as gotten on only the first chapter!

Enjoy!

Most of a night without sleep gave Will a lot of time to think, and the young apprentice had come up with three fairly reasonable explanations for his strange thoughts.

1. His addiction to warmweed back in Skandia had permanently damaged his brain somehow.

2. He had it bad for his mentor.

3. He was just at that age and thus had it bad for everyone. It was just part of growing up, and it really couldn't be helped.

Obviously the second answer was Will's least favorite even when compared to irreparable brain damage. But the third on the list seemed satisfactory enough, and Will decided that was the one he would go with. Now he just wished he hadn't taken so long to come to that conclusion and settle down enough to fall asleep again, for the morning light did not greet him happily, the sun's rays piercing through his closed eyelids drawing a groggy, displeased groan from the young apprentice.

He wanted to go back to sleep so badly, but knew that Halt would never allow him to laze around in bed all day. And he really didn't want his mentor to have to force him to get up. Besides the possibility of Halt being displeased with his slothfulness, he also more importantly did not want to see the older ranger anywhere near a bed for as long as it took for the memory of that nightmare to leave him. Will felt the involuntary stirring of a feeling he was not willing to grace with a definition. No he was not going to think about that. Nothing. It. Meant. Nothing.

Determinedly keeping that thought in mind, Will began to get dressed. His hand lingered for a moment on the fabric of his ranger's cloak. Usually the familiar garment had served as a sort of comfort to him in times of fear or stress, almost like a security blanket of sorts. It was a reminder of his place in the world, of the home he had been given even after his previous life as a futureless orphan with no promise of anything but the dull toil of farm work for the rest of his days. All it reminded him of now however was that dream, and of said garment being tossed to the floor along with the rest of his clothes before… Will suddenly felt his face grow hot. Alright that was enough of that. The young apprentice shook his head maybe a bit harder than necessary to clear his thoughts.

Frowning, Will realized just how much he was thinking about the very thing he thought he thought he had decided to stop thinking about it. He could only hope that as the day progressed, the familiar monotony of chores and training could cause him to forget that disturbance which had somehow managed to cause him such worry (completely random and meaningless as it was).

~XOXOXOXOXOXO~

Halt frowned, watching yet another one of Will's arrows sail straight past its target. A target already affixed with an arrow in its center, matching several of the other targets in the small training area near the house, proof that the apprentice's focus had only slipped so drastically the moment his mentor had arrived.

Will had been acting strangely all day, and though the boy had been keeping uncharacteristically silent about it, Halt knew something must be weighing on his mind. And it was clear that if the apprentice didn't get it off his mind soon, his training was going to suffer severely.

"Will", Halt called out gruffly, causing the young apprentice to practically jump out of his skin, nearly dropping his bow in the process, only saving it through a clumsy last-minute fumble. Forget being a ranger, at the moment the boy was barely coordinated enough to hold onto his weapons.

"Y-yes, Halt? What is it?" Will stuttered, trying his best to regain his composure and act natural, though the boy obviously wasn't fooling anyone with such a farce, let alone Halt, and it was all the older ranger could do not to roll his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Halt asked, getting straight to the point, his tone hard and stern allowing for no nonsense, sounding much the same as father might when they had caught their child in some act of disobedience.

And Will seemed to react much the same way as a child discovering they had been caught. Deny, deny, deny.

"W-wrong? N-nothing's wrong? What do you mean?" The young apprentice stammered as he tried desperately to calm the rush of embarrassed heat to his face. The same blush he had been trying to suppress every time he had seen the older ranger that day. Which seeing as they lived together was quite a lot.

Halt raised an eyebrow, in an "oh really?" way. It was obvious he wasn't buying it, but he remained silent, allowing Will the opportunity to come clean, a strategy the older ranger had found to work about fifty percent of the time on regular people and about ninety-nine percent of the time on guilty apprentices.

The boy's expression turned just as guilty as expected and his eyes fell to the ground.

"Umm… Halt…" Will started voice quiet and still staring at the ground. The boy glanced up at the older ranger, who gave a small nod of encouragement for him to go on. Will was scared to go on however. As much as he knew he would not be able to sort through these strange and mysterious feelings on his own, he was scared to speak them aloud to the one person it would matter the most to the horrible thought that had been plaguing him. Scared that Halt would be ashamed of him. That the older ranger would reject him. Halt was the closest thing he had to a family, and if he lost that, he would have nothing.

But… Halt was waiting for an answer, and Will knew he couldn't lie. Not to Halt anyway. So, heart beating so hard it felt as though it would burst out of his small chest, the young apprentice forced his way on…

"Halt, I..."

Again, sorry for how long its been since I updated, and that it was so short, and that I ended on a cliffhanger like that, buuuut since its been so monstrously long since I updated, and I've gotten so many reviews and alerts and shiz, I thought I should hurry and post what I already have since this has been sitting on my computer for a while.

~angel-san